Page images
PDF
EPUB

The Persians are accustomed to ascend the highest parts of the mountains, and offer sacrifice to Jupiter, calling the whole circle of the heavens by that name.

The Persians sacrificed to the sun and moon, to the earth, fire, water, and the winds.

Amongst the Persians, sacrifices were attended by invocations and prayers, and were always offered up by a priest.

The Persians, next to bravery in battle, considered the greatest proof of manliness was to be able to exhibit many children.

Whoever has the leprosy or scrofula is not permitted to stay within a town, nor have communication with other Persians; and it is supposed that the infliction is caused by some offence against the deity (sun god). Herodotus, book I., chaps. 131, 138.

The eldest son of the Persian king was instructed during youth in the learning of the Magi according to Zoroaster the son of Oromazes-by this learning is meant the worship of the gods-and likewise in the art of kingly government. Plato, in Alcibiades.

The Hebrews sacrificed on high places for a long period. Sacrifice in an enclosed place seems to have been adopted from the Phoenicians by David and Solomon, but not to have been popular for some centuries.

The Jewish people sacrificed to sun, moon, and some planets-had a sacred fire in the temple, and regarded clouds and wind as the ministers of God. The God that answered by fire was the one adopted by Elijah. The so-called orthodox Jews only acknowledged one God, and subsequently one devil.

The Jews neither offered invocation nor prayer at their sacrifices, and prophets and kings offered victims without priestly assistance. In later times every sacrifice was offered by a priest.

The Hebrews regarded a large family as a gift from Jehovah.

The Hebrews had the same practice; and, as we learn in the book of Job, and Deuter. xxviii., notably in the 27th verse, they deemed that botch, scab, itch, and emerods were punishments sent by Jehovah.

The royal families of Judah received no instruction, either in political matters or in religion, and were allowed to grow up and do much as they liked in regard to worship. The only power which influenced them was that assumed by some man who professed to be divinely inspired.

Ere we conclude this chapter of ancient faiths and modern, we will shortly notice an allegation which has been made occasionally, viz., that Parseeism or Zoroastrianism

has been borrowed from Jews and Christians. To this we wholly demur. Nowhere in the Avesta do we find a reference to the imminent destruction of the world, the resurrection of a dead man, his subjugating all the powers of evil, and reigning for a thousand years with his followers as kings and saints. Nowhere in the Avesta do we discover such immoral notions of God as prevailed amongst the ancient Jewish writers. Take these away from Judaism and Christianity, and then the two resemble the religions which are held everywhere by the thoughtful and the good. If there has really been any copying at all, we do not see the imitators in Central Asia but on the shores of the Mediterranean. The Jews copied from Tyre, Babylon, and Greece— Christians have taken as models Egyptians, Grecians, Romans, and even barbarians, and they have defiled a once pure faith by covering it over with the ordures of heathenism. Yet we talk of others imitating us!

I propose now to examine at some length into such of the developments as have taken place in certain religious systems, for by so doing we shall be better able to judge what are those doctrines which Christians hold, in common with what they call Pagan nations, and how far those matters which are regarded as fundamental points of doctrine are in reality trustworthy. We must ever bear in mind that if we find the same set of ideas entertained amongst peoples who by no possibility can have had any communication with each other, it is only rational to believe that each race possesses those notions in virtue of their being human. Or, if desirous of avoiding this admission, the orthodox declares that every asserted fact is a copy of a precedent one, then we ask them to reconcile the legend of Hercules being begotten by Jupiter, and Jesus by the Holy Ghost, for unquestionably the story of Alcmena's son preceded that told of Mary's.

In the following chapter I shall avoid as far as possible any reference to the tales told of the conception of Jesus, for no man, however subtle he may be, can prove that the Son of Man had a certain mundane individual called Joseph for a father; all that I desire to show is, that in every nation whose history has come down to us there have been persons whose mothers have declared themselves to have been pure virgins until adopted by some god as a temporal and temporary spouse, or who, being wives, have asserted that a son who has distinguished himself in the world has been of divine procreation-an affirmation, be it observed, that can only be made in case the spouse has been manifestly unfaithful, or by some fulsome historian desirous of exalting his hero to celestial rank. There is scarcely a barbaric dynasty known, indeed, which does not claim an origin from some heavenly father, mother, or both.

There have been many hierarchs who, having felt conscious of the absurdity of making, by miraculous agency, all wonderful beings come from woman only, have consequently invented legends in which men have produced offspring without a consort. Some may be disposed to deride these tales, who can readily credit the stories of virgin mothers; but in reality there is no difference between the two sets of legends, in probability, wherever "miracles" are assumed. It would have been quite as easy for the writer of Genesis to have made Isaac come from old Abraham's bosom as from the womb of his hoary-headed wife. But the Jewish writers have never proved themselves as subtle as the Hindoos and Greeks. Instead of asserting that a man, without a woman's assistance, has borne a son-a matter capable of proof-they have declared that a woman has conceived, without the assistance of a man; an asseveration for which there cannot be any proof whatever, no not even physical, for accoucheurs know that many a female con

ceives by her lover's instrumentality, and bears a child, at whose birth, or rather when parturition is imminent, that part which is called "the Hymen," and is the Mosaical test of virginity, is not only unbroken, but so small in aperture, and strong in flesh, as to require operative or surgical interference before the child can come into the world. Accord

ing to Mosaism these must be regarded as absolutely virgin mothers.

CHAPTER VIII.

Supernatural generation. What is meant by the term. Examples. Children given by the gods. Anecdote. Frequency of god-begotten children in Ancient Greece. Their general fate. The stories not credited by the grandfathers of children, nor apparently by the mothers. The babies, how treated. Foundlings and Hospitals. Antiope. Leucothöe. Divinely conceived persons not necessarily great or good. Babylonian idea that a god came down to enjoy human women. Tale from Herodotus. Jehovah as a man. Grecian idea attached to the expression Son of God. Homer. Hebrew ideas. Roman notions. Romulus, son of Mars and a Vestal. Augustus, son of Apollo. Modern ideas respecting Incubi. Prevalence of the belief. Its suppression. Causes of its origin. Bible made to pander to priestly lust. Dictionnaire Infernal. History of incubi therefrom. Stories. Strange idea that the Gods who made men out of nothing cannot as easily make babies. Divine Androgynes. Strange stories of single gods having offspring. Narayana and the Spirit of God of Genesis. Chaos. Hindoo mythos of Brahma. Birth from churning a dead man's left arm, and again his right. Ayonijesvara, his strange history. Similar ones referred to. History of Carticeya. Christian parallels. Immaculate conception a Hindoo myth. The dove in India and Christendom. Agni and cloven fiery tongues. Penance and its powers. Miraculous conception by means of a dove. Other myths from various sources.

Ir is a question which should, in my opinion, be asked by every individual in a rational community, whether it is advisable to continue, as a matter of faith, a doctrine which must be repudiated, as a matter of fact. To this we may join, as a rider, can anyone who puts his credence in a legend because it is old, claim to be superior to those who originally invented the tale, in the darkness of antiquity? When moderns smile at the stories told by the classic Varro, how certain mares in Lusitania were impregnated by the wind on a certain mountain, without any access to a horse, and

« PreviousContinue »